


Munitions

by MrProphet



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-24
Updated: 2014-03-24
Packaged: 2018-01-16 21:40:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1362655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MrProphet/pseuds/MrProphet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff"><p>SHIELD belongs to Marvel, as do the 'consulting staff'. This was written for 40 fandoms in 40 days.</p></blockquote>





	Munitions

The day was dragging on. Sergeant Cole seemed insistent that her newest underling prove his chops by stripping down and rebuilding every weapon in the helicarrier armoury, including the experimental Phase 2 weapons that Corporal Jack Bradley had never even heard of before he arrived for his new assignment.

“We deal with weird shit,” Cole explained tersely. “If you can’t safely strip and disable something new, you’re not much use to me as anything but decoration.”

The last part of the cook’s tour began at a sealed vault hatch which made the main armoury entrance look like a screen door.

“This is Chamber 126,” Cole said. “Access is by the specific authorisation of directorate grades only, and under no circumstances should special consulting staff or their handlers be allowed inside.” She entered her security code and bent her head for a retinal scan. The hatch sprang open with a sharp clang.

“That was sudden.”

“If you ever need to get in here, you won’t have time to hang around,” Cole assured him. She led him into a small chamber with only a single weapon rack. The first thing to impress Bradley was that no two weapons in the room were the same.

“What is all of this?” he asked.

“This is the contingency vault. SHIELD is mindful of the risk of one or more of the contactors going rogue and has prepared for that eventuality. What that means is that each of these weapons is to be released in one and only one specific circumstance, and all armoury technicians need to know both the circumstance and the prep procedures for each of them.”

Bradley took a deep breath, trying to deal with the enormity of that statement. “This is the weapon cache for if the Avengers turn on us?”

Cole nodded. “Shall we begin?”

“Yes, Sergeant.”

“Okay.” She picked up a short rpg launcher and a very small rocket-propelled grenade. “This is a fifth iteration improvement of the Hammer Munitions kinetic strike ‘bunker buster’. The booster accelerates the projectile to Mach 5 in less than three seconds of flight, with a maximum range of ten klicks. It can punch through an inch of titanium-steel plate on velocity alone and the secondary charge could level a tower block. It’s a smart-targeting, self-guiding delivery system, so you only need to fire and forget; or more likely fire, reload and fire again. 

“It’s enough to drop one of Stark’s suits even on a bad day, but on a bad day he’d probably bring more than one of them.”

“I guess we hope not to have a bad day?” Bradley hazarded.

“Oh, we sincerely hope never to have to use anything in here,” Cole promised him, before running him through the start-up sequence for the launcher.

“Next, the gamma pulse projector.” She held up what looked very much like a Phase 2 carbine. “It shoots a beam of highly concentrated gamma radiation which will react with a super-soldier serum to induce rapid, uncontrolled mutation.”

“So… you hit Captain Rogers with that and he gets an exploding tumour or something?” Bradley asked as he ran through the controls.

“Or something is right. We can’t test it so we don’t know if you’d stop him in his tracks or turn him into another Abomination. It’s a gamble; much like this.” She held up a small box.

“What is it?”

Cole donned a pair of heavy gauntlets and opened the box. It contained an air pistol and what appeared to be a small wooden dart.

“According to legend, this is the dart that killed Baldur, god of light, favoured son of Odin and brother of Thor.” Bradley reached out a hand, but Cole drew the box away. “It has the power to slay even a god with one scratch, they say, but it will certainly kill a human and it splinters like anything, so never handle it without gauntlets.”

Bradley swallowed hard and nodded. “Okay.” Once the box was put away he turned to the centrepiece of the room, a heavy rifle shrouded in dull grey heat shielding. It almost hummed with power and menace. A box of shells the size of wine bottles sat beside it, shining in contrasting bands of titanium, depleted uranium and molybdenum.

“This is the piece de resistance,” Cole replied. “We call it the Hulkbuster.”

Bradley picked it up and held it admiringly. He broke the breach and slid one of the massive rounds into the chamber, removing it without closing, just in case. He was pretty sure that the shell would punch clean through the helicarrier from side to side.

“What does it do?” he asked in a reverent whisper.

Cole shrugged. “It gives you a comforting false sense of security.”

**Author's Note:**

> SHIELD belongs to Marvel, as do the 'consulting staff'. This was written for 40 fandoms in 40 days.


End file.
